Head of Naftogaz: Gazprom cancelling gas transit through Ukraine
Gazprom has started the process of officially notifying the countries bordering Ukraine that the transit of gas through the territory of Ukraine will stop from the beginning of next year, Head of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolyev said in an interview with RBC Ukraine.
“Gazprom is already officially notifying the countries that border Ukraine or are dependent on our transit that there will be no transit of gas from the beginning of 2020,” Kobolyev said without citing any sources.
In March, the Bulgarian authorities said that they had received a similar letter from Gazprom Export. RBC news agency reported, that Gazprom denied sending any official notifications to Bulgarian authorities about their intention to stop gas transit along the Trans-Balkan corridor from January 2020.
In early March, Kobolyev had expressed concerns that Ukraine may completely lose gas transit after the construction and launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. “We will lose the entire transit. Because there is also the Turkish Stream, which is likely to have been built and launched by 2019,” he said.
Ukraine was expected to sign a new gas transit contract with Russia. The current agreement expires on December 31, 2019 but the parties have not signed a new one. “In order to make the conclusion of an agreement possible, we have a fairly simple negotiating position. Either Gazprom signs a contract, thus automatically removing the CTA from our claim, or, we are sorry you have to compensate for it,” Kobolyev said in an interview with RBC Ukraine.